If you want to make a movie about a mass shooting, and you want the audience to feel what it's like to strive to survive, you film it in one single take and you film it in real time. Basically, you film it exactly like Utøya: July 22.

U July 22 follows one young woman from the start through to the end of the mass shooting that took place on July 22, 2011 in Oslo, Norway, at a youth summer camp on the island of Utøya. The technical expertise required to make the entire film in one take and in real time boggles the mind, but creates a sense of immediacy that pulls the viewer into the story and traps them there.

The film's weaknesses (a couple of scenes feel like filler and others fall into cliché) do little to reduce the overall impact of U July 22, especially when the director (Erik Poppe) chooses to film in Norwegian and to never reference the shooter by name. Utøya is one of the most unique, powerful and authentic films you will see this year.

This film is basically shot in one single take, following the lives of individual en masse at Utoya, a Norwegian island that was attacked by a right-wing extremist who created a massacre.

This is a fairly good film; it has a lot going for it, but somewhat falls into a mesh of sappiness which lays in the back of my mouth when thinking back to seeing this film. Still, most of the acting is very well performed. I'm looking forward to seeing Paul Greengrass's film version of the same event.